A bill that would rebuild how New York pays for recycling is one Assembly floor vote away from the finish line, and it would reach a lot further into everyday retail than its name suggests. The Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act, S1464A in the Senate and A1749A in the Assembly, shifts the cost of handling packaging waste from towns and taxpayers onto the companies that put the packaging on the shelf.

How the program works

The act sets up what is known as extended producer responsibility, or EPR. Companies that sell, offer for sale, or distribute packaged products in New York would have to register with a single statewide packaging reduction organization, pay fees into it, and follow a plan approved by the Department of Environmental Conservation. That organization then reimburses municipalities for the recycling services they currently fund out of local budgets.

The obligations on covered producers include:

  • Reduce packaging by 10 percent within three years of the program starting, and by 30 percent within twelve years.
  • Meet minimum postconsumer recycled content standards.
  • Stop using a list of restricted toxic substances in packaging.
  • Pay fees that are eco modulated, meaning harder to recycle materials cost the producer more.

The exemption that matters to independent stores

A producer is exempt if it has less than 5 million dollars in combined annual gross revenue, or is responsible for less than two tons of packaging a year. A single neighborhood store or bodega selling national brands is not the producer of those brands’ packaging, and most independent operators fall under the revenue floor anyway.

The exposure is indirect but real. If your store sells a private label or store brand line, imports product, or repackages goods under your own name, you can be the producer for that packaging. And whatever the brands pay in fees tends to reach independents the same way every other input cost does, through the wholesale invoice.

Where it stands

The Senate passed an earlier version of the bill on May 28, 2025 by a vote of 33 to 25. On April 29, 2026, sponsors Senator Pete Harckham and Assemblymember Deborah Glick introduced a package of roughly 150 amendments, rewriting large parts of the bill to line up with the EPR laws already on the books in Minnesota and California. Those amendments stretched out compliance timelines, dropped five of the banned substances, removed a proposed recycling inspector general, and extended certain waivers from one year to five. Harckham described the result as a middle ground reached with stakeholders.

As of the last recorded action on June 5, 2026, the amended bill sits in the Senate Rules Committee. The remaining hurdle is a floor vote in the Assembly.

The fight over cost

Industry groups are not persuaded. The Flexible Packaging Association argues the bill will drive shortages and higher shelf prices, pointing to a study it cites at 732 dollars a year for a family of four. The American Forest and Paper Association says the amendments still do not solve the affordability problem. Supporters counter that the cost is already being paid, just by the wrong people: Environmental Advocates NY notes New York City alone proposed spending 477 million dollars on waste export in 2025, money that comes out of public budgets rather than from the companies generating the packaging.

What to watch

  • Does the Assembly bring it to the floor? That is the whole ballgame. Everything else is settled or amendable.
  • Check whether you are a “producer.” Store brand, private label, and imported goods are the trigger, not the shelf itself.
  • Expect a lag, not a shock. Even after enactment, the organization gets selected within nine months, producers register within eighteen months, and the program starts no later than three years out.

AARA will report when the Assembly schedules a vote.

Sources